I'm Stealing Your Land!

In an article titled "10 Things Your Neighbor Won't Tell You" Quentin Fottrell lists this as #7..."I'm secretly stealing your land.""Few homeowners have heard of "adverse possession," but it's the legal grounds on which a neighbor can claim rights to your land. Say a neighbor moves a fence or wall, or plants trees or a bush. If he encroaches on your property, and no one notices, he can claim "continuous, exclusive, open and notorious" use of that land -- and if he's able to do so for an average of 10 years in most states, he may be able to claim ownership. This could potentially add tens of thousands of dollars onto the value of his property while reducing the value of yours. But most people don't check their land boundaries until it's too late, Zierman says. "You may not want to make a fuss because you're neighbors," he says. By the time it becomes a real issue -- you're selling your house, or your neighbor is -- securing the boundaries is important, and fighting to get the land back can cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees."

Knowing where your boundaries are can save you problems down the road, if you are in Wisconsin, give Bosshard Surveying a call at 920-293-4001, we can help you so you know exactly where your boundaries are, for much less than it could cost you! Don't let someone else rob you of your valuable property.

This Content Originally Published by a land surveyor to Land Surveyors United Network

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